Traveling Exhibitions

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation / Foundation / Traveling Exhibitions

Rodin: In His Own Words
Selections from the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation

By the latter part of his life Auguste Rodin had achieved success on an international scale. His readiness to speak about himself and his work contributed to this success. He understood marketing the way many artists today can only imagine! Rodin was revered by his contemporaries and his opinions and views on art were sought with great respect and adoration. These views were disseminated through several books published under his own name, as well as by biographers, interviewer, and in countless letters. Together these present a vibrant image of the great sculptor and his work.

Working from the belief that Rodin knew best what he wanted viewers to know about his art and the artists and art critics of his time, this exhibition featured more than 35 by Rodin accompanied by things he said about the works or about his art in general. The exhibition was curated by then-staff members Danna Kay and Amy Silvey. Rodin: In His Own Words visited twenty museums:

Loyola University Museum of Art
Chicago, Illinois
June 13, 2009 – August 16, 2009

Stamford Museum & Nature Center
Stamford, Connecticut
March 7, 2009 – May 24, 2009

Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art
Midland Center for the Arts, Midland, Michigan
December 13, 2008 – February 22, 2009

Las Cruces Museum of Art
Las Cruces, New Mexico
September 5, 2008 – November 22, 2008

Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science
Evansville, Indiana
May 10, 2008 – August 17, 2008

Hillstrom Museum of Art
Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota
March 8, 2008 – April 22, 2008

Howard Community College Art Gallery
Columbia, Maryland
December 8, 2007 – February 17, 2008

Oglethorpe University Museum of Art
Atlanta, Georgia
September 8, 2007 – November 17, 2007

Gibbes Museum of Art
Charleston, South Carolina
May 25, 2007 – August 12, 2007

Brunnier Art Museum
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
January 9, 2007 – April 29, 2007

Whatcom Museum
Bellingham, Washington
August 26, 2006 – December 10, 2006

Dennos Museum Center
Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, Michigan
April 29, 2006 – August 6, 2006

Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art
Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania
January 21, 2006 – April 9, 2006

The South Texas Institute for the Arts
Corpus Christi, Texas
October 6, 2005 – December 31, 2005

University of Kentucky Art Museum
Lexington, Kentucky
July 10, 2005 – September 18, 2005

Pensacola Museum of Art
Pensacola, Florida
April 8, 2005 – June 18, 2005

Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art
Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama
January 4, 2005 – March 13, 2005

Middlebury College Museum of Art
Middlebury, Vermont
September 14, 2004 – December 5, 2004

Federal Reserve Board
Washington, D. C.
May 3, 2004 – August 20, 2004

The Hyde Collection Art Museum
Glens Falls, New York
January 18, 2004 – April 11, 2004

Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession,
Sculpture from the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation

The most recent version of the Foundation’s large survey exhibition, Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, was a retrospective of the artist’s career and included more than sixty bronzes, from small studies to monumental works. It represented the sculptor’s major projects and innovations – such The Gates of Hell, The Monument to the Burghers of Calais, and Monument to Balzac. The exhibition spanned the length of Rodin’s career from his early bust of his father to his late studies of dancing figures. It included many of his most admired pieces: The Thinker, The Three Shades, The Kiss, Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose, The Age of Bronze, Saint John the Baptist Preaching, and The Cathedral.

In addition to bronzes, the exhibition included works on paper, portraits of the artist by other sculptors and photographers, and an educational model that demonstrated the complexities of the lost-wax process, Rodin’s favored method of casting bronzes.

The exhibition visited twenty-six museums in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Singapore:

Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
May 9, 2009 – August 9, 2009

Louisiana State University Museum of Art
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
January 24, 2009 – April 19, 2009

Frist Center for the Visual Arts
Nashville, Tennessee
September 12, 2008 – January 4, 2009

Plains Art Museum
Fargo, North Dakota
April 17, 2008 – July 13, 2008

Mobile Museum of Art
Mobile, Alabama
January 25, 2008 – March 23, 2008

William Benton Museum of Art
University of Connecticut, Storrs
September 7, 2007 – December 16, 2007

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
April 6, 2007 – July 29, 2007

Winnipeg Art Gallery
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
September 28, 2006 – January 14, 2007

Beaverbrook Art Gallery
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
May 27, 2006 – September 4, 2006

Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art
Hartford, Connecticut
January 28, 2006 – April 30, 2006

Albany Institute of History and Art
Albany, New York
October 15, 2005 – January 1, 2006

Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
June 18, 2005 – September 18, 2005

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
February 26, 2005 – May 22, 2005

Glenbow Museum
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
October 30, 2004 – January 30, 2005

Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute
Utica, New York
July 24, 2004 – October 3, 2004

Philbrook Museum of Art
Tulsa, Oklahoma
January 25, 2004 – March 28, 2004

Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Buffalo, New York
April 17, 2004 – July 3, 2004

University Art Museum
University of Louisiana, Lafayette
September 20, 2003 – January 4, 2004

Sioux City Art Center
Sioux City, Iowa
June 7, 2003 – August 31, 2003

Akron Art Museum
Akron, Ohio
January 25, 2003 – May 18, 2003

Ringling Museum of Art
Sarasota, Florida
October 11, 2002 – January 5, 2003

Singapore Art Museum
Singapore
June 5, 2002 – August 25, 2002

McClelland Gallery
Langwarrin (Melbourne), Australia
March 10, 2002 – May 19, 2002

National Gallery of Australia
Canberra, Australia
December 14, 2001 – February 24, 2002

Art Gallery of Western Australia
Perth, Australia
October 4, 2001 – December 5, 2001

Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Salt Lake City, Utah
May 20, 2001 – September 2, 2001

Rodin’s Obsession: The Gates of Hell, Selections from the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation

The Gates of Hell (1880-about 1900) was Rodin’s most ambitious commission. Originally conceived to be the entrance portal for a never-realized museum of decorative arts in Paris, The Gates features hundreds of figures modeled in high relief and in-the-round. The imagery in The Gates was inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy and by Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal. (Divine Comedy was written about 1307 and is the tale of a journey through Hell and Purgatory to Paradise and Les Fleurs de Mal, written in 1857, is a book of poetry that examines complex, often morbid emotional states.) The visual model for Rodin’s Gates was the long-standing tradition of compartmentalized scenes on church portals, specifically the doors to the Baptistery in Florence (1425-52) designed by the Italian Renaissance artist Lorenzo Ghiberti. Rodin, however, abandoned the formal structure of these traditional doors, creating instead an environment of tormented souls in which figures float in a surging sea of fire, representing the suffering of mankind.

After The Gates of Hell was almost completed, the commission was cancelled because the French Government decided it needed a train station on the site that had been designated for the decorative arts museum. Accordingly, the Gare d’Orsay was built and Rodin was left with a massive nearly-completed art work, with no one to pay for its casting and no place to put it. (It is ironic that today one of the original plasters for The Gates is in the Musee d’Orsay.)

Thus, beginning in the 1880s, the sculptor removed many of the nearly three-dimensional figures from The Gates of Hell and made them available as independent, freestanding sculptures. Among the most well known are The Thinker (1880) and The Three Shades (1880-1904). The complete Gates of Hell was never cast during Rodin’s lifetime.

The Foundation’s traveling exhibition featured maquettes as well as scores of independent sculptures derived from The Gates of Hell. Visiting eleven venues, this show was viewed by more than 85,000 people, making it one of the Foundation’s most popular.

Saginaw Art Museum
Saginaw, Michigan
September 20, 2003 – November 30, 2003

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts
June 20, 2003 – August 29, 2003

Palmer Museum of Art
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
January 14, 2003 – June 1, 2003

Ball State University Museum of Art
Muncie, Indiana
September 15, 2002 – December 11, 2002

Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art
Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas
June 15, 2002 – August 25, 2002

Yellowstone Art Museum
Billings, Montana
March 23, 2002 – June 2, 2002

Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park
Grand Rapids, Michigan
January 11, 2002 – March 3, 2002

Emily Lowe Gallery
Hofstra University, Hampstead, New York
October 2, 2001 – December 14, 2001

Las Vegas Art Museum
Las Vegas, Nevada
July 12, 2001 – September 16, 2001

Newcomb Art Gallery
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
April 12, 2001 – June 15, 2001

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art
Pepperdine University, Malibu, California
January 20, 2001 – March 25, 2001

Rodin’s Monument to Victor Hugo

Originally commissioned for the Panthéon in Paris, Rodin’s never-realized Monument to Victor Hugo was of great personal significance to the artist because – like his contemporaries – he idolized Hugo for his literary and political achievements. Although a plaster of the monument was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1897, it was never cast in bronze during Rodin’s lifetime. The cast in this exhibition was the second made and the first accessible to audiences in the United States. The exhibition included studies for other versions of the monument, studies that led to its final design. There were also related works that Rodin had presented as independent figures and portrait studies of Victor Hugo. There were four works on paper and twenty pieces of sculpture, including works in marble, bronze, plaster and terra-cotta. The exhibition included artworks borrowed from the Musée Rodin, Paris, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, the Rodin Museum at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the College of the Holy Cross.

This beautiful exhibition visited five museums:

Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts
Stanford University
Stanford, California
January 26 – March 26, 2000

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, New York
October 6 – January 2, 2000

Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens
Jacksonville, Florida
July 7 – September 19, 1999

Portland Art Museum
Portland, Oregon
April 13 – June 11, 1999

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles, California
December 17, 1998 – March 15, 1999

Rodin at Rockefeller Center: Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection

June 17 – August 31, 1998

Despite the strength of bronze, today Rodins are rarely situated outside. Thus Rodin at Rockefeller Center provided a unique opportunity to experience the artist’s monumental sculpture outside, as it was often during his lifetime. Seen against the spectacular backdrop of Rockefeller Center, the exhibition consisted of eight outsized bronzes and exemplified Rodin’s revolutionary approach to the human figure.

Beginning on Fifth Avenue, The Three Shades invited visitors to Rodin at Rockefeller Center to walk along the Channel Gardens. These gardens were beautifully landscaped in the tradition of French formal gardens of Rodin’s time. At a central grove visitors found an intimate setting to view figures from the Burghers of Calais, Whistler’s Muse, Meditation and Monumental Torso of the Walking Man. At the western end of the promenade overlooking the Center’s Festival Café, The Thinker, one of the most celebrated sculptures of all time and perhaps Rodin’s greatest triumph, capped the exhibition.

Not unexpectedly, news about Rodin at Rockefeller Center was all over the media both here and abroad. The exhibition seemed to capture the imagination of all who knew of it. Japanese television featured the show, as did American television and newspapers. Iris Cantor and Foundation then-director Rachel Blackburn were interviewed often; Iris was even on-the-air live with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer of the Today show.

This project was a collaboration between the Cantor Foundation and the Public Art Fund.

The Hands of Rodin: A Tribute to B. Gerald Cantor

Dedicated to the memory of B. Gerald Cantor (1916-1996), The Hands of Rodin explored the artist’s fascination with the expressive capabilities of hands, both as independent sculptures and as parts of more complete pieces. The exhibition featured about fifty works and demonstrated Rodin’s mastery at portraying human hands and communicating their strength and expressive potential.

When Rodin composed a new figure he often experimented by attaching to it previously-made hands, exploring the possibilities the combinations might reveal. This working method encouraged Rodin’s interest in the fragment, and he championed the idea that individual forms, such as the hand, were not necessarily dependent upon a whole figure to convey meaning. By carefully modeling their musculature, proportion, texture and balance, Rodin showed that hands could convey a profound amount of emotion, from anger and despair to compassion and tenderness.

Under the tutelage of Musee Rodin curator Cecile Goldscheider, B. Gerald Cantor came to share Rodin’s fascination with the human hand. The very first Rodin Mr. Cantor purchased was The Hand of God, a highly symbolic work in which the hand represents God the Creator of man and woman, as well as artist as creator. His collection eventually included dozens of Rodin’s hands, and he continued to add them to his collection throughout his lifetime.

This exhibition, curated by then-Executive Director Rachel Blackburn, visited six sites:

Portland Art Museum
Portland, Oregon
June 1, 1998 – August 31, 1998

Arkansas Art Center
Little Rock, Arkansas
February 13 – May 17, 1998

Museum of Art
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah
October 24, 1997 – January 24, 1998

Brooklyn Museum of Art
Brooklyn, New York
July 18 – September 28, 1997

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
March 27 – June 22, 1997

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles, California
December 12, 1996 – March 2, 1997

Rodin: Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection (this show was the core for the following show, RMO)

Utah Museum of Art
Salt Lake City, Utah
May 20, 2001 – September 2, 2001

Fresno Art Museum
Fresno, California
January 24, 2001 – April 1, 2001

The Chrysler Museum of Art
Norfolk, Virginia
September 21, 2000 – December 31, 2000

North Carolina Museum of Art
Raleigh, North Carolina
April 15, 2000 – August 31, 2000

Dayton Art Institute
Dayton, Ohio
January 22, 2000 – March 26, 2000

Nassau County Museum of Art
Roslyn Harbor, New York
September 26, 1999 – January 2, 2000

Newark Museum of Art
Newark, New Jersey
June 5, 1999 – August 15, 1999

Palm Springs Art Museum
Palm Springs, California
February 16, 1999 – May 16, 1999

Speed Art Museum
Louisville, Kentucky
December 8, 1998 – January 31, 1999

Nevada Museum of Art
Reno, Nevada
February 28, 1998 – May 31, 1998

University of Arizona Museum of Art
Tucson, Arizona
November 1, 1997 – January 15, 1998

Montgomery Museum of Art
Montgomery, Alabama
July 26, 1997 – October 12, 1997

Krannert Art Museum
University of Illinois
Champagne, Illinois
April 23, 1997 – July 15, 1997

Norton Museum of Art
West Palm Beach, Florida
January 18, 1997 – March 23, 1997

Albuquerque Museum of Art
Albuquerque, New Mexico
October 20, 1996 – January 5, 1997

Joslyn Art Museum
Omaha, Nebraska
July 27, 1996 – September 15, 1996

El Paso Museum of Art
El Paso, Texas
April 14, 1996 – June 30, 1996

San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego, California
December 16, 1995 – March 31, 1996

Portland Museum of Art
Portland, Maine
July 2, 1994 – October 9, 1994

Focus on Rodin: Selections from the Collection of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor

Art Museum of Western Virginia
Roanoke, Virginia
September 14, 1998 – January 24, 1999
(or February 17, 1998 – March 29, 1998)

Bayley Museum of Art
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
April 4, 1998 – June 7, 1998

Colorado Springs Fine Art Museum
Colorado Springs, Colorado
September 20, 1997 – January 11, 1998

Morris Museum
Morristown, New Jersey
February 2, 1997 – April 27, 1997

Dixon Gallery and Gardens
Memphis, Tennessee
July 1, 1996 – December 31, 1996

Fort Wayne Museum of Art
Fort Wayne, Indiana
April 1, 1994 – May 29, 1994

The Rodin Bronzes: Sculpture from the B. Gerald Cantor Collections

San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego, California
December 16, 1995 – March 31, 1996

Tacoma Art Museum
Tacoma, Washington
September 9, 1995 – November 26, 1995

Marquette University
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
March 17, 1995 – June 15, 1995

Monterey Museum of Art
Monterey, California
January 7, 1995 – February 28, 1995

University of Wyoming Art Museum
Laramie, Wyoming
September 10, 1994 – December 23, 1994

Boise Art Museum
Boise, Idaho
June 11, 1994 – August 20, 1994

Fort Wayne Museum of Art
Fort Wayne, Indiana
April 1, 1994 – May 31, 1994

Haverford College
Haverford, Pennsylvania
January 26, 1994 – March 20, 1994

Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati, Ohio
November 19, 1993 – January 4, 1994

Cheekwood Museum of Art
Nashville, Tennesee
January 28, 1993 – April 4, 1993

The Arkansas Art Center
Little Rock, Arkansas
December 3, 1992 – January 24, 1993

The Snite Museum of Art
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana
September 21, 1992 – November 20, 1992

Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art
Utah State University
Logan, Utah
July 15, 1992 – September 6, 1992

Oklahoma City Art Museum
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
March 15, 1992 – June 30, 1992

Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences
Savannah, Georgia
December 3, 1991 – February 27, 1992

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
June 1, 1991 – October 30, 1991

Muscarelle Museum of Art
College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia
February 28, 1991 – April 28, 1991

Center for the Fine Arts
Miami, Florida
October 15, 1990 – January 6, 1991

University Art Museum
University of Southwestern Louisiana
Lafayette, Louisiana
July 15, 1990 – September 30, 1990

New Orleans Museum of Art
New Orleans, Louisiana
February 10, 1990 – June 24, 1990

Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix, Arizona
June 16, 1989 – December 3, 1989

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery
Lincoln, Nebraska
November 29, 1988 – May 15, 1989

Passion of Rodin: Sculpture from the B. Gerald Cantor Collection

Knoxville Museum of Art
Knoxville, Tennessee
June 23, 1995 – August 16, 1995

Lakeview Museum of Art and Science
Peoria, Illinois
May 1, 1988 – July 3, 1988

Dixon Gallery and Gardens
Memphis, Tennessee
February 9, 1988 – April 3, 1988

Sculptures from the B. G. Cantor Collections
Figures from Rodin’s Gates of Hell

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery
College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, Massachusetts
January 15, 1986 – February 15, 1986

The R. W. Norton Art Gallery
Shreveport, Louisiana
November 15, 1985 – December 31, 1985

Jacksonville Art Museum
Jacksonville, Florida
September 15, 1985 – October 30, 1985

High Museum of Art
Atlanta, Georgia
June 28, 1985 – August 11, 1985

University of Kentucky Art Museum
Lexington, Kentucky
April 15, 1985 – May 31, 1985

Columbus Museum of Art
Columbus, Ohio
February 2, 1985 – March 17, 1985

Flint Institute of Arts
Flint, Michigan
November 23, 1984 – December 31, 1984

Elvehjem Museum of Art
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
September 15, 1984 – November 10, 1984

Evansville Museum of Arts
Evansville, Indiana
July 15, 1984 – August 26, 1984

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
February 1, 1984 – April 1, 1984

Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit, Michigan
June 15, 1983 – September 15, 1983

Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Minneapolis, Minnesota
February 5, 1983 – April 15, 1983

Rodin’s Monument to the Burghers of Calais from the B. Gerald Cantor Collections

High Museum of Art
Atlanta, Georgia
March 1, 1988 – September 1, 1988

Columbus Museum of Art
Columbus, Ohio
June 15, 1986 – December 1, 1986

Birmingham Museum of Art
Birmingham, Alabama
September 15, 1980 – January 8, 1981

Rodin’s Studies for the Burghers of Calais from the Cantor Fitzgerald Collection

South Texas Institute for the Arts
Corpus Christi, Texas
June 28, 1979 – August 31, 1979

Wellesley College Museum of Art
Wellesley, Massachusetts
March 23, 1979 – June 10, 1979

Carnegie Museum of Art
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Octobver 11, 1978 – November 26, 1978

University Museum
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas
October 9, 1977 – November 15, 1977

Indianapolis Museum of Art
Indianapolis, Indiana
August 20, 1977 – September 20, 1977

Smart Museum of Art
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
May 11, 1977 – June 20, 1977

Philbrook Museum of Art
Tulsa, Oklahoma
March 13, 1977 – April 24, 1977

Crocker Museum of Art
Sacramento, California
January 14, 1977 – February 15, 1977

The Thinker

Jundt Art Museum
Gonzaga University – Spokane, Washington
May 15, 1986 – November 15, 1986

Dallas Museum of Art
Dallas, Texas
November 10, 1985 – April 27, 1986

Kobe Museum
Kobe, Japan
December 27, 1976 – January 30, 1977

Iwate Prefectural Hall
Morioka, Japan
November 27, 1976 – December 20, 1976

Kitakyushu Municipal Museum
Kita-Kyushu, Japan
October 28, 1976 – November 21, 1976

Hiroshima Prefectural Museum
Hiroshima, Japan
October 2, 1976 – October 24, 1976

Seibu Museum of Art
Tokyo, Japan
July 30, 1976 – August 25, 1976

Museum of Art
University of Houston
Houston, Texas
March 9, 1972 – March 9, 1975

Rodin’s Balzac from the Cantor Fitzgerald Collection

New York Cultural Center
New York, New York
November 9, 1974 – December 15, 1974

Museum of Art
Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts
September 20, 1974 – October 28, 1974

Cincinnati Art Museum
Cincinnati, Ohio
July 15, 1974 – August 23, 1974

Norton Art Gallery
Shreveport, Louisiana
May 26, 1974 – June 30, 1974

Museum of Art
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia
April 7, 1974 – May 5, 1974

Denver Art Museum
Denver, Colorado
February 10, 1974 – March 20, 1974

Birmingham Museum of Art
Birmingham, Alabama
December 15, 1973 – January 15, 1974

Boise Gallery of Art
Boise, Idaho
September 8, 1973 – October 28, 1973

Saint Louis Art Museum
Saint Louis, Missouri
October 3, 1972 – December 17, 1972

Selections from the B. G. Cantor Collection

Museum of Art
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
March 15, 1971 – April 18, 1971

Des Moines Art Center
Des Moines, Iowa
December 9, 1970 – January 10, 1971

Rodin Bronzes

(circulated by the American Federation of Arts)

Western Gallery
Western Washington State College
Bellingham, Washington
April 18, 1971 – May 9, 1971

Santa Clara University
Santa Clara, California
March 9, 1971 – March 27, 1971

Fresno Art Center
Fresno, California
January 24, 1971 – February 14, 1971

Pensacola Museum of Art
Pensacola, Florida
December 12, 1970 – January 3, 1970

Carroll Reece Museum
East Tennessee State University
Johnson, Tennessee
November 1, 1970 – November 20, 1970

Colorado Springs Fine Art Center
Colorado Springs, Colorado
September 20, 1970 – October 11, 1970

The Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art
St. Joseph, Missouri
August 9, 1970 – August 30, 1970

Mobile Museum of Art
Mobile, Alabama
June 28, 1970 – July 19, 1970

Allentown Art Museum
Allentown, Pennsylvania
May 17, 1970 – June 7, 1970

Quincy Art Center
Quincy, Illinois
April 5, 1970 – April 26, 1970

Dulin Gallery of Art
Knoxville, Tennessee
February 22, 1970 – March 15, 1970

Georgia Museum of Art
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia
January 8, 1970 – February 9, 1970

Alexandria Museum of Art
Alexandria, Louisiana
November 30, 1969 – December 20, 1969

Museum of Art
St. Petersburg, Florida
October 19, 1969 – November 9, 1969

Homage to Rodin

California Palace of the Legion of Honor
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
November 21, 1968 – January 5, 1969

Museum of Fine Arts
Houston, Texas
January 31, 1968 – March 3, 1968

Beginning in 1978, the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation has shared its collection of Rodin sculpture with museums throughout the United States and Canada and loaned works to museums in Singapore, Venezuela, Australia, and Japan. Loans from the Foundation occasionally also mean sending a few pieces to a special exhibition organized by a host museum. Most often, the Foundation loans an entire exhibition that it organizes itself.

“The people of Arcadiana [Louisiana] still talk and reminisce about the [1994] exhibit…and count it as one of the most importance events – cultural or otherwise – to have occured in this area in recent years. You would be amazed at what a difference that exhibit has made. Since the Rodin exhibit public demand for the arts has increased enormously. I would wager that what you have…accomplished here, in this largely rural area of a half-million people, has affected more individuals, in more ways, than perhaps anything else that you have ever done. You have awakened more appetites, enlarged more lives, and opened more eyes (and doors) than you could ever imagine. Years from now, people may very well look back on the Rodin exhibit, and count it as one of the greatest influences in who and what our people eventually become.”

Usually two exhibitions – one large and the other small – travel simultaneously. The large shows often consist of approximately 30-70 pieces and provide a comprehensive retrospective of Rodin’s work. The smaller shows tend to be thematic, sized to be appropriate for smaller college, university, and community museums and galleries. All shows travel with extensive educational materials, including text panels, and object labels.

Since 1978, these exhibitions have attracted more than ten million visitors at more than two hundred venues in forty-three states, Canada, and abroad. As Rachael Blackburn pointed out in her foreword to the Foundation’s 2001 book Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, “Except for the necessary shipping containers, darkened storage areas were never a part of Mr. Cantor’s plan.”

Earliest Exhibitions 1968 – 1986

The first exhibitions of artworks from the Cantor Collections circulated before the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation began presenting its own shows in 1978. These earliest exhibitions included:

Information